North
Turn to the right one more time, to the pillars with white in the background. The lake is frozen now and covered with snow. It’s winter, and it’s dark, with a full moon glowing above an elder. She’s a traditional dancer, slower than the other two. The traditional dresses are heavy because they’re typically full hide, Beaulieu says, and the beadwork adds more weight. She holds a fan with an eagle feather in her hair. “The grandmother holds the family together鈥攅verything together,” Beaulieu says. “Women in our societies made the decisions because we were the most grounded, and we were the life-givers. This woman represents coming back to tradition.”
You’ll also see the fourth appearance of a birch tree, now in the dark shadows. Along with land and water, birch bark (in Ojibwe, wiigwaas) is present in all four groups of pillars because of its significance to the Dakota and Indigenous way of life. “Birch bark is how we made all of our containers and our canoes,” Beaulieu says. “You can boil water in a birch bark basket鈥攜ou can put it right over the fire and it won’t catch. It’s how we carried things; it’s how we caught maple syrup. In the north woods, we lived off this.”
Dive Deeper
- Read:
- Watch: by The Nature of Things
- Featuring Helen Peltier (Anishinaabe from Fort William First Nation)
- Read: by Keith B. Anderson for the Hennepin History Museum
- Watch: from PBS
- Read: by Chandra Colvin (Bois Forte Band of Chippewa) for MPR News
- Read: Talking to trees, the cool April air, and frogs: Ancient Ojibwe tradition of tapping maple trees for syrup by Sheila Mulrooney Eldred for Sahan Journal
Reflection Questions
- What have you learned from the stories you heard growing up?
- How can we become better stewards of the natural world on campus?
- After learning about beadwork, what are some of the key elements in Dakota and Ojibwe art styles? Do you see their influence on other art forms?